Florida Republicans may have broken with GOP values and the NRA by backing a wasteful $400 million gun control bill. Retail outlets like Dick’s Sporting Goods may be cowing down to the Twitter-happy Left by removing assault-style rifles from their nationwide locations. But not everyone is content to grin and bear the swath of social network assaults and media temper tantrums about guns in America.

As we saw back in January, the Virginia Senate sees things differently and more pragmatically. Instead of less guns in less places, they wisely opted to pass legislation that would allow firearms in places of worship. This, of course, was in response to the church shooting in Sutherland Springs, TX, an incident where 26 lives were taken.

The VA Senate’s move is something that all US states should take note of as it underscores the importance of guns for self-defense and illustrates the way in which we can prevent these deadly mass shootings from occurring.

Gun control has been a hot topic in the state for quite some time; it was the top agenda of Governor McAuliffe and Governor-Elect Ralph Northam earlier that month with the Gov calling for expanded background checks.

Fortunately for those residing in Old Dominion, the newly sworn-in Gov. Northam’s legislation was dealt a swift blow from the Senate who blocked his bill to regulate gun purchases and limit guns at public rallies. As the expression goes, cooler heads prevailed.

Their decision came mere weeks before the Parkland shooting sent the Left into a tizzy. February saw the advent of the #NeverAgain movement whose poster children were thrust into the spotlight to become the pretty, innocent face of the anti-gun agenda. And as in the case of the mythical Sisyphus, it’s been all downhill from there.

We’ve watched as hypocritical celebrities tweeted about ending gun violence while earning millions from starring in big budget shoot-em-ups. We watched belligerent kids refusing to return to school until their demands were met.

We’ve seen those same kids return to school after appearing on popular talk shows to push for gun restriction. And we’ve shaken our heads as TV funnyman Jimmy Kimmel made false statements about the president’s repeal of Obama-era gun legislation.

Also like Sisyphus, the Left are still stubbornly rolling their gun control boulder back up the hill despite their repeated failures. They show no sign of giving up as we’ve seen with the rash of recent tweets urging more big box stores to stop carrying long guns.

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin has told CBS News that “It’s not gun control, it’s gun sense,” which suggests that the Virginia Democrat has no sense. Manchin’s appearance on “Face the Nation” was hit latest attempt at plugging the Manchin-Toomey bill, a piece of tired legislation that aims to tighten background checks.

It’s yet another example of Democrats frothing at the mouth after a mass shooting and ignoring the larger problem. They never bother to mention the FBI’s disorganization and lack of resources when it comes to background checks. In 2016, the FBI had to halt appeals by prospective gun buyers because of the overwhelming volume of background checks for new gun sales.

Perhaps the scariest part of all is how liberals have expanded their focus to trample not only on the Second Amendment but, also, on the First and Fifth. Not content to simply ask for a ban on rifle calibers and AR-15s, the Left are apparently gunning for our freedom of expression and privacy.

Over the past several years, Facebook and Google have begun to routinely remove conservative content. YouTube is also mass-censoring right-wing commentators.

Such censorship may seem like nothing new; after all, the liberal media regularly whitewash the facts and stifle Republican voices (just look at how Left-wing big mouth Bill Maher cuts off his Right-wing guests). And as far back as 2013, the Left-slanted Journal News got in hot water for publishing a map of gun owners’ names and addresses in New York State.

But 2018 has seen more widespread misconduct than ever before. Tune into any late night talk show and you’ll find folks like Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert perpetuating fake news like President Trump’s alleged hiring of Russian prostitutes. Take a quick, nauseating glance at the once-smartly subversive Saturday Nite Live and all you’ll see is a variety show bankrupt of ideas and forced to recycle their tired mockery of our Commander-in-Chief.

Not only is it sad to see how hackneyed American entertainment has become, it is also scary to see just how far they are willing to go to attack people who clash with their political ideology. Since the 2016 president campaign, the Left has done nothing but play dirty and even the general public have become tyrannical in their approach to those with opposing opinions.

At least one man lost his job because he supported Trump in his private life.Eddie Slayton, a resident of Ephrata, PA, was fired by his Muslim boss on the grounds that his support of Trump was not in keeping with the company’s peaceful environment.

It’s times like this that Virginians and, indeed, all Americans should be protecting their privacy and preventing themselves from being censored. There are a number of privacy tools out there from secure web hosting to VPNs (Virtual private networks) which enable users to hide their IP addresses and keep liberal trolls at bay.

Dedicated VPN technology can unblock censored content, safeguard against potential attacks by hackers and prevent a security breach. It’s the safe way to go about your business online without being targeted by people who would use your political beliefs against you.

If you’re a political commentator with a website that receives a lot of traffic and sells a lot of merch, secure web hosting can make a big difference in terms of handling sensitive transactions and protecting the anonymity of your customers.

Sam Bocetta is a retired engineer who worked for over 35 years as a defense contractor for the U.S. Navy, specializing in electronic warfare and advanced computer systems. He teaches in Ottawa, Canada as a part time engineering professor and is the ASEAN affairs correspondent for Gun News Daily.